What’s Happening with Wor Demba?

"I Want Curly Hair Too"One question which will hang around for United fans this summer – until it’s resolved – is the one about the future of Demba Ba.

Tottenham manager “Droopy” announced to the world before the last January transfer window that he had discovered Ba had a £7M release clause in his contract. Since then, United have pretty much confirmed it exists, although we are informed that it’s not quite in the form that Droopy thinks it is.

Ba has not said much, and there were rumours that United were trying to re-negotiate his contract with the club to take the offending clause out – but given the stance of the club on wages, I doubt if they have much room for manoeuvre, as they apparently have an upper limit on what they are prepared to pay individual players – any individual! From Ba’s perspective of course, his game is about goals – and he had scored 16 before he went off to the African Cup Of Nations, but didn’t score a single one when he came back, after his role was changed to accommodate the arrival of his mate Papiss Demba Cisse.

United manager “The Twice Chosen One” Alan Pardew has gone on record imploring the Geordie faithful to tell Demba they love him, as with Ba it’s not about money, he just needs to feel wanted – Howay Man Pards that’s a load of syruppy bow locks!!

So the situation is that when the transfer window opens, Ba will be free to talk to anyone who has £7M burning a hole in their back pocket. If the media are to be believed, so-called “big clubs” Chelski and Manchester United are prepared to love him (did you see what I did there Pards?), with little Tottenham and Droopy hanging around like a bad smell in the background. How those clubs will weigh up Ba’s medical records and dodgy knee rumours against their 7M smackers is up to them of course! Ba’s proposed £5 million move from Hoffenheim to Stoke City in 2010 collapsed because of an old knee injury, while a switch to Stuttgart a year earlier was also called off following a medical.

It would be great if Demba chose to stay – and lets be fair, its not a foregone conclusion that he will leave. Although he didn’t score in the latter half of the season, he came close on numerous occasions – and I’m sure a tactical genius like Alan Pardew can come up with a formation which gets him back scoring.

For United fans, there’s also the worry of what impact it would have on Papiss Demba Cisse if his mate was to leave? We’ll just have to see how this one unfolds.

I do genuinely think ba is on his way out. Hasn’t stayed at a team for more than a season in ages and I think he’s wanting to cash in his half of the release clause (thanks for telling the world about that H. Redknapp) but I reckon if we were able to get luuk de jong or even bas dost I think I’d be ok with it. After all we have managed to get him for nowt and we got plenty of other players on the cheap who got us to 5th place. No reason why graham carr can’t find some more inexpensive gems. I’d say a cheeky 12 million bid for de jong just to be sure and then we’ve got a player just as good as ba with age on his side too. Don’t get me wrong it’ll be sad to see him go as he did a great job first half of the season and was an important part of us qualifying for europe but if he wants to go then there’s not much point in him staying if his hearts not in it. My ideal starting 11 next season
Krul
Debuchy, Colo, Mbiwa, Santon
Cabaye, Tiote, Gutierrez
De Jong, Cisse, Ben Arfa
Subs: Elliot, S Taylor, R Taylor, Perch, Marveaux, S Ameobi, Dost.

“Tottenham manager “Droopy” announced to the world before the last January transfer window that he had discovered Ba had a £7M release clause in his contract. Since then, United have pretty much confirmed it exists, although we are informed that it’s not quite in the form that Droopy thinks it is.”

I heard that it was only for teams in european competition and the £7 million figure came from Dirty David Sullivan.

Amalfitano ?
Hope this guy is good, i mean some unknown from the French second tier.
Is this the kinda player that will take us to the next level ?
Yeah we have seen some of Carr’s recruits and for the most part, decent, but this strikes me as a bit strange.
Smacks of cheap!
Where’s Jr. Hoilett ?
We are about to find out what Ashley’s ambitions are for this club and though it’s very early yet, not very impressive so far.
Probably have to deal with a lotta brinksmanship and going down the lists, i seem to remember we started out like gang busters during the early stages of the last summer window, only to find ourselves scrambling to bring in badly needed defensive help, in Santon, who we hardly played.
I hope the two, or is it now three footballing geniuses, have learned something from that.
If we are to go after some silverware, it could amount to at least an extra fifteen games, which will require a bit more depth, but not consisting of French second tier players i hope.

Chuck, Ian Wright-Wright-Wright was an amateur non-league player until he was the same age as Amalfitano. He went on to become an FA Cup finalist (alongside our Silver Supremo) with Crystal Palace, eventually becoming Arsenal’s highest ever goalscorer until Terry Henry came along.

Well Chuck, on the subject of history repeating itself in a scenario as rare as hen’s teeth, is Ashley going to sell an ex Academy player who cost close to nothing for £35 million every year, to a club which will the run the risk of being laughed at and ridiculed in a drunken gastropub rant by Newcastle’s managing director?

That’s what Ashley and Llambias are going to do every year to maintain last year’s figures unless they increase the commercial revenue the club generates drastically.

I reckon amalfitano could be good. I mean there were times where nobody heard of messi (no means a comparison by the way) but you never know. Carrs obviously seen something in the lad that struck him as a potential good addition to the squad. Don’t see him getting ahead of cabaye or tiote to break into the starting eleven but if his brothers owt to go by he’s a good one for the future.

Chuck help me out. I was in a bar watching the Champions league final with an American friend who brought up Pele and said he was the best player ever. I said Messi was just as good, but I as talking out of my arse as usual. I only ever saw Pele play in the ’70 world cup and that was on a black and white TV and I was 8.

I don’t want to get into a big debate but you were in your mid-50’s back in ’70 and I would appreciate a more seasoned point of view.

Right just seen a vid of amalfitanos goals for reims. He looks a good dangerous midfielder who can grab a few goals. Looking forward to seeing him in action and see if he can bring that attacking mindset to newcastle.

GS, how can you say who the best player in the world is? how do you compare someone like Pele with someone like Beckenbauer?

But for the hell of it

Johan Cruyff was my greatest player ever because he could do and think everything and Garrincha was probably the most entertaining. Pele was undoubtedly an amazing player, but did everything imaginable to enhance his own legacy, often to the detriment of his great partner in the Brazil team, Garrincha. Like Maradona, Garrincha won a World Cup almost on his own in 62 when Pele was knacked. On the subject of Maradona, he was also an amazing player, however many of his greatest moments were performed towards the end of games when opposing teams were knackered, and he was drugged up to his eyeballs on ephedrine so he’s diqualified. George Best was a magnificently entertaining player and dribbler, but Garrincha was the original lovable alcoholic, sex maniac winger who could dribble his way out of anything. of course, there are others too. I loved watching Zidane. There’s something strangely delightful about watching a big, ugly bloke like him move with such grace on the ball.

As far as great defenders go, the two great sweepers, Beckenbauer and Baresi loom large along with a few others.

I was thinking more about players of different types, but I choose Cruyff because he was every type, he was a one man football team with the most incredible vision and conviction of how the game should be played. He completely changed football and without him, there may not have even been a Messi.

Worky: don’t be surprised if there is a Cruyff article on another blog tomorrow. It usually repeats what the papers say but I have noticed that recently when something is brought up in the comments here an article appears on that other site the next day. It is usually not something that is in the news either.

GS, two players I didn’t mention above, because I haven’t seem enough of ’em really, though I’ve seen enough to know that they were both incredible players. Old father Chuck will remember ’em though. :-)

It’s true, i have had, simply by longevity the good fortune to personally watch a good number of great players.
Or for that matter a great number of good players
As to comparing the greats from one generation to the other, nearly impossible.
How does one compare a John Charles to a Pele or a George Best to a Messi, not only the generations seperate them, but the styles of play, players build, were they equally good in the air, could the play both in an attacking sense as well as defensively.
There’s room for an eternal argument there.